Loved this hutch and all that was in it. 

The grass is always greener on the other side. And in my mind, the shopping is sometimes greener as well.

Great display of mirrors and old ironstone.

Take the case of Golightly's. Cute, cute, cute!

Funky vintage goods mix well with new product.

I took these on a cloudy day, so not the best pics, but as you can see, what an eye for display these gals have. As well as a great mix of vintage and new goodies.

OK, just let me move in here.  LOVED everything about this beautiful display.

Loved it all.

Lovely bits throughout the store.

If you get the chance, head over and shop and take some time out for yourself.

Yep, Fall.  I'm a bit behind.

I'm sure that their Christmas decorations are just as lovely as the Fall ones were.

-c

*sigh* at the risk of sounding like one of those annoying people on tv, who go on and on about the deal they have for you, well, I really do.

As I mentioned last week, I really did hit the mother of all Estate sales last week. With the result being, I can barely get into the Studio. So I need it to go out as fast as it came in. I'm offering low prices in my Etsy shop. And I do refund shipping if I overcharge.

Lots of cool french frames, vintage millinery, great books and so much more. Keep your eyes on my Etsy, I'm loading as fast as I can!

-c

Pinterest is Evil

I posted this on the other blog yesterday, but thought I would stick em here, really quick, for those that don't read the other blog. :)

Just showing off a few pages from a book that I recently completed for my young friend Avery. I wanted to do something really cool to document her first time to the Circus. Something she could be really interactive with.

I created lots of smaller flip pages, cards to journal on, doodles, and even silly things, like a clown mask (for journaling) and a pop corn box (for mementos). I wanted it to be as much fun as her day at the Circus was.

And I hope that she feels that way as well.
-c

PS...why is Pinterest evil? Because I have 5 million things I NEED to be doing, and yet, I sit here, clapping in delight, squealing, "pretty pictures", like I don't have a care in the world. Good grief, menopause has eaten my mind. Along with Pinterest.

Hi Ho the Dairy Oh!

A single green bean!

Freezie, freezie!  We had our first hard freeze this week.  It was hard to see my wee little gardens frozen and dying.  But, I've already gotten my first seed Catalog and I'm EAGERLY waiting for Spring!

A single wee tomato!

Gardening made for an interesting summer, for sure.  Because this summer, I took up gardening.

My first raised bed included Kale, Beets, Basil and Marigolds.  This is before the freeze.  

What you have to understand to get the big pic is this: 1. The ONLY way I have a green thumb, is if its covered in paint. 2. Sweet Hub often refers to me as, "the vampire". I don't even like to go outside to get the mail.

My second raised bed had squash, lettuce, parsley, thyme, green beans and cabbage.

So, for me to go outside, dig in the dirt AND face the bees, all without self combustion in the sunlight, a major feat indeed. I took a great class this summer, from the gals at Garden Inspirations. I am eagerly anticipating gardening catalogs and planning my artful garden journal.  And hoping that I get at least one more wee green bean!

I learning that creativity comes in all shapes and sizes, even green.  Even outdoors!

The Mother Loade of Estate Sales

Just when I depaired of never finding any cool vintage again, along comes the "mutha" load of all Estate Sales. Heaven, oh heaven. I picked for me, I picked for friends, I picked for me to sell on Etsy. Heavenly indeed. I don't think the lovely lady that had owned her sweet little 1900's cottage ever threw anything away. Bless her heart. And she crafted,painted, baked, drew and more. Yep, it was heavenly. Hope to get things on Etsy all this week. Keep your eyes on the shop, cause I'm passing the deals onto you! :) -Cindy

Last week passed in a whirl wind of uber creativity, lots of girl talk and laughter, shopping, creating, eating and all around fun. Between Paper Cowgirl classes and a quick decision to go to Canton, the past few days have felt like a week of "ooldes of goodness", to quote my sweet friend Lissa.

Even though I am the coordinator of Paper Cowgirl, rarely do I ever take classes. But when I do, I relish each moment. Such fun to be in the creative moment with other like minded gals. To see more of the what everyone else did, check out the Paper Cowgirl blog, http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com. Above is my collage BEFORE all the wicked cool modeling compound and wax has been applied. We began with paint, then collage elements were laid out in a pleasing design.

Melted beeswax is applied once all the elements are in place. This, to me, was loads of fun. I couldla just kept laying on that beeswax. So cool to see how it really made a visible difference. I also enjoyed going back and removing and scraping wax from certain areas. Bits of Lace, dots of white paint, buttons, all of the finishing touches come together in the end. 

Great learning experience. I'm sure that I will be applying this technique to many more art projects to come.

-c

Grumpy equals Creativity

Those dreaded words...root canal. Words that I had known that I never wanted to hear, were be spoken. ugh.

I found the procedure itself to not be as all the horror stories that I had heard. However, the recovery from, well, lets just say its been a long week. My usual antidote, to run to the Studio, was the answer for a wee bit of the time. Time that was not spent on the couch.

And while I did not get massive amounts done, I did manage to knock off a journal page(s) and a finish up a canvas collage piece that I had started last week. So, not too bad. For being grumpy! :)

Well, I've got some really cool pics of a new collage I just finished...but this STUPID computer won't let me show. I hate computers. So, before I get on my soap box and go on a rant...suffice to say, I'm going to be absent for a few days while we try and get this silly thing fixed. But I'll be back with pics (hopefully) soon.

Fall has finally arrived in Texas. Finally. Much needed rains yesterday morning brought a crispness and coolness that was sorely being missed.. Temps in the 70's today found us out and about at Calloway's (a garden/nursery), dreaming of what "could be" in our own backyard. Down the road abit, at Central Market (my fave, fab grocery store), we loaded the funky little green shopping basket full with several of the new apple varieties, Swee Tango and Zester and Little Sweetie, just to name a few.  And apple ciders. Love apple ciders.  Hello Fall.  Its good to see you again my friend.

Creating. I love creating. Taking random bits and transforming them into something else.

Today I'm doing some creating for some pieces for Wicked Tea.And while I don't want to entirely let the "owl" of of the bag, I thought you might enjoy a sneakie peekie of what is happening in the Studio today. ADcame up with the wonderful color scheme of Silver, Black and lime green. Very pretty and elegant. You can't really see it, but I got the adorable owl image from Altered Artifacts! I love her shop. Check her out, she's got some great images for Halloween, as well as some steam punk stuff. OK...back to glittering!

Leaf it To Me!

This Summer has been one of the hottest and driest that I can remember. Evah! It's soooo hot...well, believe me it's just hot. And dry. And because of those two things and the fact that our tress are already so stressed, there most likely will NOT be any Fall color here. Not that there is much anyway...but for a few short weeks, we sometimes do get some pretty color.

That's the facts, jack. So what is a Fall loving gal to do. Make my own. So...I did. , Even if you do have pretty Fall colors in your neck of the woods, this is still a fun project to do.

Start with a leaf, a real leaf. Trace it onto light card stock like above. Sometimes I use an empty cereal box. Being green and all. Carefully cut it out, now you have a "master" leaf.

See? Just like above. Now pull several pages out of say, an old condensed Reader's Digest. You can generally pick them up at garage sales for under a buck. I also used an old encyclopedia too, but the thinner pages were more brittle, really easy to tear. So I think the Reader works better. Lay your master on top of 5 book pages. Trace around them. Carefully cut out all five pages at once. This is great to do in front of the TV.

Now, lay out your newly cut "leafs" and carefully dry brush them with Gesso. Let em dry. While they dry, I thought about roasting hot dogs and sitting around a campfire making smores...which I won't be able to do this year because of the drought. boo.

Once my Gesso'd leafs were dry, I piled em all in a big pile and jumped in...no. I piled em up and sprayed em with Maya Roads spray. I also sprayed them with some of my cousin Tim's (that's a joke!) alcohol ink mixed with some of his pearl dust, mixed in a Ranger mister.

Looks kinda like above. Now pull out one leaf and work quickly, dry brushing some Golden Fluid Acrylic paint here and there.

I love this paint. I would marry this paint, if only it would ask me. That's just how fab it is. You are laying down the paint, but also picking up the wet sprays, it makes a nice combo.

Your leaves are now beginning to look like this. Let's do em all!

I used green, red, and gold fluid acrylics. Seemed kinda fall to me and I thought those colors would mix in well with my little velvet pumpkins. I'm so happy Shells turned me onto these! I LOVE THESE SHELLY!

OK, now that we've gotten that out of our system, and all of our leaves painted, your leaf pile should begin to look like above.

Since I wanted mine a little more "grotty", my last step is to spray em lightly and randomly with a little Walnut Ink Stain. And stain it will, so be VERY careful where you spray. Most times I keep a spray bottle full of coffee, but the last batch got pretty moldy and I've not made any since, but that works well too!

There ya go! Now, let those pretty Fall leaves dry really really good and then you are ready to play. To make em look even more realistic, gently fold them in half. Then fold some of the leaf parts, corner to corner. Or roll an edge around a pencil. This just gives em a little more dimension.

Pile em up with pumpkins or just scatter em around. Make a pretty garland. Or write a name on one and use it as a place setting place card. Decorate a package with em.  Just go crazy. And have fun!  Thanks for peeping at my little project.